The paper presents a new approach to CIL, V 6414-5, two bronze tablets from Ticinum bearing medical recipes, in combination with worship practices in honour of healing and water-related deities such as Minerva, Valetudo, Esculapius and Mars. The investigation has been devoted to all the topics implicated in these multi-faceted texts, namely: ancient medicine and botany, water-related healing cults and mantic practices. In order to shed a new light on the circumstances of the production and usage of the document, the study focused on facets not previously explored in depth by earlier scholarship, such as the botanical analysis of the medicinal plants mentioned in the text, with a comparative perspective towards modern herbalist practices. Combining the information provided by the archival records, the geomorphological features of San Genesio (Pavia), the locus inventionis, and the narrative pattern of the texts, a new interpretation for the abbreviation “fm” has been proposed: f(ontis) m(ei). The tablets should therefore be considered the prescriptions of the numen fontis, given through a priest equipped with some notions of folk medicine, located in a shrine connected to some spring or running water in the countryside of Ticinum.
Category: Posts
–Public Lecture: A new fragment of AE 1987, 464 (Pizzighettone, March 15th 2014)–
Posted on behalf of Assessorato alla Cultura- Comune di Pizzighettone
**With apologies for cross-posting. Please forward to interested parties**
Public lecture: A new fragment of AE 1987, 464, Pizzighettone’s Tabula patronatus. Epigraphical study and archaeological restoration of the highlight of the municipal Museum collection.
Saturday March 15th, 2014, 4.30 pm, Centro Culturale Comunale di Pizzighettone, Via Garibaldi, 18 – 26026 Pizzighettone (CR) – Italy
Free attendance, all welcome!
You’re warmly invited (Invito Tabula Patronatus )to the aforementioned afternoon event.
Italy’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Lombardia) and Pizzighettone’s Municipality are delighted to announce the unveiling of a new piece of AE 1987, 464, a Roman tabula patronatus, restored and again on display to the public, thanks to the generous funding of Pizzighettone Municipal Council.
The lecture will be given by Paola Tomasi, epigrapher at University of Pavia and Genova, who conducted the study of the inscription, and Florence Caillaud, who will be talking to us about the restoration work she performed in her lab in Bologna.
Speakers include Filippo Maria Gambari, Head of Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Lombardia, and Francesco Muscolino, archaeologist at the same government department responsible for archaeological heritage.
The event is organized and funded by Pizzighettone Municipality, and patronized by Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Lombardia.
The lecture will be followed by drinks and nibbles. An exceptional opening to the public on Sunday, March 16th, 3-6 pm, will allow visitors to explore the museum’s collection and appreciate the display cabinet especially made to showcase the tabula patronatus.
Please feel free to repost and advertise on the other relevant websites.
Italian version of this press release can be found here: COMUNICATO STAMPA TABULA PATRONATUS PIZZIGHETTONE
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to address your enquiries to the following contact details:
Phone (landline): +39 0372 743347
EpiDoc on Facebook
More details on the EpiDoc page on Facebook can be retrieved here on the post I’ve just published on Current Epigraphy.
Dripsinum: a new old Roman city
Old and new at the same time: archaeologists shed light on a Roman settlement, whose location was previously unknown.
The site, known before just from literary sources, has been discovered by Paolo Visonà, a native of northern Italy and adjunct associate professor of art history at the UK School of Art and Visual Studies at the UK College of Fine Arts, and George Crothers, an associate professor of anthropology at the UK College of Arts and Sciences.
Let’s hear from their own voice something about this exciting discovery!
More general information can be found here, while here you can retrieve more details on the archaeological techniques.